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Many were anticipating that the short and stubby iPod nano would be a disappointment when the rumors of the device were running rampant. Once Steve Jobs introduced it, all fears were quelled. Just get one into your hands, and you will no longer be a skeptic. The 2-inch screen obviously isn’t the best for watching full-length movies, but for music videos and the like, it’s worthy. If you are all about the audio, the nano holds up to 8 GB worth of data. It’s thin (0.3 inches), the screen is fantastic, and the battery lasts for 26 hours. Just stay away from Cover Flow on this one - it’s sluggish.

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While Microsoft’s first generation Zune hardly put up a fight against Apple’s iPod juggernaut the soon to be released Zune 2 seems to have a much better chance of gaining a foothold in the market. Last 100 has posted their take on the top 5 things the new Zune got right - we agree with them for the most part, although they do seem to underscore the challenge Microsoft faces with the iPod Touch, iPhone, and the rest of the iPhone line.

The new flash based Zunes do help widen their appeal, but Apple has anDAP available in $50 price increments from $79 all the way up to $400 - something to fit everyone’s budget and needs. Apple has also beat Microsoft to the punch on mobile song purchase, but the new improvements to the Zune store shows that Microsoft is gaining momentum to catch them on features.

All in all, the Zune 2 has a chance with it’s bevy of new features. With the goal of helping the brand Microsoft is also smartly planning to release a firmware update for the 1st generation Zune that will include all of the new features. Now might be a good time to pick up a Zune on the cheap if you don’t mind slightly older hardware but are interested in the new store or social networking features.

Mi Pillow contains integrated speakers with a built-in amp and can connect to your iPod, PMP, or CD player. There is a volume and music control in the “ear pillow.” The exterior is composed of fleece and the interior is made with therapeutic foam with a pocket to hold three AA batteries (not included.) The comfortable 4 3/4 x 22 x 11-inch substitute for earbuds seems to be a fine solution for those long car treks for $59.99. Preorder the Mi Pillow from Hammacher Schlemmer for a late August ship date.

Microsoft is happily touting the fact that they have finally pushed over one million Zune units through to retail. The announcement was part of their latest earnings call, highlighted by the fact that Microsoft earned over $50 billion in annual revenue. A great sales figure on paper, but remember, this just means that retailers purchased a total of 1.2 million Zunes - it does not mean that all those Zune units have been purchased by consumers. This explains why joining “The Social” is about as difficult as finding a Wii.

Earlier today, iriver and Real unveiled their new partnership strategy, focused on the new iriver clix Rhapsody digital media player. In reality, the clix Rhapsody is just a clix2 that inetgrates seamlessly with Real’s Rhapsody music service. The end result is something that is akin to the iPod + iTunes integration that many enjoy from the Apple side of things. The player will sync up with your Rhapsody library, and will also download personalized Rhapsody Channels which, in theory, should be chock full of tracks you will enjoy. If this sounds familiar, it’s because SanDisk has done something similar with their Sansa player. All in all, the iriver clix Rhapsody runs for $189.99 USD (watch out for the $12.99 monthly all-you-can-eat Rhapsody fee), which includes 4GB of storage, and is available now. Even better still, anyone who has previously purchased a clix2 can just upgrade the firmware on their device, which pretty much turns it into a clix Rhapsody as well.

We just got our hands on one of the new ZuneHalo 3 Edition units, and we thought you might like to see us do an unboxing on video. That is the goal of this episode of Unboxing Live. Peep the video, and then check out the Halo Zune unboxing gallery if you wanna take a look at the stills, yo.

We just got our hands on one of the new ZuneHalo 3 Edition units, and we thought you might like to see us do an unboxing on video. That is the goal of this episode of Unboxing Live. Peep the video, and then check out the Halo Zune unboxing gallery if you wanna take a look at the stills, yo.

We just got our hands on one of the new ZuneHalo 3 Edition units, and we thought you might like to see us do an unboxing on video. That is the goal of this episode of Unboxing Live. Peep the video, and then check out the Halo Zune unboxing gallery if you wanna take a look at the stills, yo.

We see that a bunch of you enjoyed our Halo 3 Edition Zune unboxing gallery, so we figured you might be interested in knowing a few more details on the device. We just got official word from the MicrosoftZune team on these facts, so you can pretty much bank on the following. First of all, the Halo 3 Edition Zune will only be available in one color - black with a blue double-shot. Obviously, it has all the external markings that distinguish it from the normal black Zune, but don’t go expecting any Master Chief green units.

The Zune Halo 3 Edition will be launching on June 15, 2007, and will be exclusively available from Gamestop stores. That means if you want one, you aren’t going to be able to order one from Amazon or pick one up at Best Buy - you gotta head to the wretchedness known as Gamestop. For those wondering about price, the Halo 3 Zune will run for $249.99 - same price as all the other Zunes out there. What’s cool about that, though, is the fact that you get a lot of pre-loaded content on the Halo 3 Edition Zune. We aren’t just talking about the custom wallpaper either - you can expect a collection of content from Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3, including videos, full soundtracks, trailers, and artwork. You can check the full list of content on the Zune Halo 3 edition after the break.

We know a lot of you are big fans of the iriver clix, which we thought had one of the best UI designs we have seen on a DAP. Well, we just got word from iriver that what was previously known as the clix2, and will now be known as the iriver clix gen 2, is now available for purchase in the USA. This one sports a fantastic 2.2-inch 260,000 color AMOLED screen, adds support for 30fps video in Windows Media 9 and MPEG-4, and still has Flash Lite support. The battery lasts a whopping 24 hours (with the display off) for audio, and 5 hours for video (at 15fps.) You can order one today from the iriver America store, or wait a week or so to pick one up from another retailer. The 2GB version sells for $149, 4GB at $199. If that isn’t enough, wait till June and grab the 8GB model for $249 USD.